Must-have posters for language classes

My dad and grandma are in town visiting right now, but I have been feeling the itch to get into my classroom and begin setting it up before classes begin on August 22. I snuck away for a few hours yesterday morning and put up all of the permanent posters that will adorn my walls this year.

Use your walls!

Our walls our one of our greatest resources in supporting comprehension for our students. My walls are filled with posters that I reference regularly at the beginning of the year, and that we use less and less as the year goes on.

By posting frequently used words on the board that carry little meaning on their own but that make a big impact on overall comprehension (think conjunctions, prepositions, etc.), I eliminate the need to teach them explicitly. They come up constantly, naturally, and I can point to them whenever I use them. Quickly, students do not need me to point to them, but they remain present for students to use when they are producing language (speaking or writing).

Some of the vocabulary is designed to help my students narrate, and some will help them understand, respond to, and ask critical thinking questions.

Get these must-have posters for language classes!

The first two are the Compare and Contrast Signs and the Narrative Vocabulary sign (please excuse the error with later/finally/at last…it is corrected in the file and in my classroom, I just didn’t take a new photo!):

Next, these three signs: Conjunctions and prepositions, Common storytelling words, and Vocabulary for Academic Writing

These Standards Based Assessment posters are so that my students understand the grades they receive:

These Question Words Posters (along with the “hay – there is/there are” poster, not pictured) are the most important in my room.

The Expressing Opinions is new this year, and I hope that its presence will encourage me to up the reps of these structures and that their accessibility will encourage students to use them more often.

34 replies on “Must-have posters for language classes”

I love the posters you made and the photos you took to show us. I have always wanted to have posters like these, but never had the time to sit down and make them. Is there any chance you have these typed up in a document and could share them so I don’t have to reype them? I would really appreciate it! Thanks.

I love your blog and am a devoted follower! I have been struggling with how to get a Word Wall going and I think your posters are a perfect place to begin. I would love it if you could send me the files so I acan get started with the cutting and pasting!!
Mil gracias!
Michelle in Vancouver Canada

Thanks for reminding that I have to get on the French version of those; I really like the second set and hope the kids will make good use of it. I better hurry up, only have a couple of weeks left. Yikes!

I love the posters as well! 🙂 I’m going to spend my whole work day looking at your site. It is wonderful!! I tried the Pingback link for the posters and it didn’t work 🙁 I’m not sure what to do next, but would love to download the posters.
Thanks!

Hmm…not sure about the pingback (I don’t even see one anymore…weird). To download the posters, click on the red text within the post–any red text is a link; in this case, a link to the file. Hope that works!

So true! I have been staring at that incorrect poster on my back wall all year, thinking, “I really need to fix that…” but haven’t gotten around to it. And since these are PDFs, I REALLY need to update them on the site. Thanks for the reminder…maybe today will be the day! Maybe…

I DID IT!! WOOHOO! And I crossed it off my to-do list! Well…I changed the file on the site anyway, and printed out the corrected poster for myself….just need to have a kid fix it, as you suggested. Can you laminate over lamination??

Hi! These are amazing. I am using them in my classroom this year (I just transitioned from all French to almost all Spanish) and was wondering what the font is? I want to add a few other posters and I’d like them to match. 🙂 Yes, I am THAT girl…

Hola Martina,
I noticed in one of the pictures from your classroom (I think it was on a blog post about an Esperanza writing activity where the students recorded answers to questions on huge post-it notes around the classroom) that you had a set of Subject Pronoun posters. Would you happen to have a file of them that you wouldn’t mind sharing? Thanks for all your hard work on CI/TPRS. It’s making my upcoming switch from traditional methods a lot less intimidating.

I cannot thank you enough for providing so many materials for educators! I am in my early years as a language teacher and want to begin TPRS and CI this year for my Spanish 1B and possibly Spanish 2 students. These posters have saved me SO much time from searching and creating a similar version.